Christmas Ornaments & Brotherly Love
by Cuz I'm Nice Like That
Summary: LOL I was given an awkward collaboration of words and phrases to put a short drabble together...Alexis/Daniel drama..Danimina...Christmas...balls...Do not ask...Just read my tired ramblings lol Enjoy! D


_LOL I was given an awkward collaboration of words and phrases to put a short drabble together...Alexis/Daniel drama..Danimina...Christmas...balls...Do not ask...Just read my tired ramblings lol Enjoy! =D_

_**-NWJ**_

"12 Days of Christmas."

"Christmas around the world."

"12 Days of Christmas."

"Christmas around the world."

"12 Days of Christmas."

"Christmas around the world."

"12 Days of Christmas."

"Christmas around the world."

"12 Days of Christmas."

"12 Days of Christmas."

"Christmas around the world."

"Thank you, meeting adjourned." Wilhelmina stood promptly, beginning to gather her spread photos, a victorious smirk on her face.

"Wait, no...Nobody move, you tricked me!"

Wilhelmina plopped back in her seat with a huff, now feeling the exhaustion of what had been an unnecessarily long meeting. A collaborative sigh was heard among the employed Editor's as they rolled their eyes at their clocks and watches.

"I still say we do the 12 Days of Christmas!" He was adamant and unmoving...He was angry...He was unwilling to be pushed up against the wall by Wilhelmina Slater once again. He got up once again, allowing Wilhelmina to slam down her pen in agitation once again."12 center spread photos for each verse and then a collective photo on the cover."

"Yes Daniel, What every Mode reader wants to see on Christmas day, a 3 skimpily dressed Maids-A-Milking and a Partridge prostitot in a damn pear tree!" Her hand hit the conference table and the Editor's jumped back in fear,

"Back-Up..." Marc whispered, motioning to everyone as they leaned back in their chairs with a distinctive abhorrence.

"And just how original is Christmas around the world? We might as well have Fey Sommer's mummified corpse sitting on Santa's lap!"

Amanda whimpered, whipping around her chair to exit as Marc stood, leaning towards Daniel. "So insensitive."

"Okay, Okay...let's take a break." Claire suggested, feeling a headache begin to creep upon her frontal lobe. She stood from the table and the rest of the Editor's followed suit, rushing the coffee cart at the back of the room.

Betty waivered over in Daniel's direction, biting her bottom lip as she loomed around his mood, attempting to interpret it. "I think your concept is great..."

"It's genius!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up as he admired his step-by-step block in comparison to Wilhelmina.

"I bet if we took a poll...you'd win."

"Please Betty, If Wilhelmina Slater could tamper with the 2004 elections and eliminate Florida than I'm damn sure she could rig an office poll." He rolled his eyes at the mock ups, looking over to where Wilhelmina still sat, leisurely sipping on a black coffee cup with a wild _W _standing in red on the front.

"And of course she acts like there is nothing wrong..."

"Daniel..." Betty pointed out, thinking back to that morning. "Don't you have a mug like that...Just red with black writing and a _D _on the front?"

He shrugged it off, turning back to the photos. "I don't know Betty. My mother picked out the kitchen stuff for my house..."

"I thought you were living with Molly now..."

He turned around, smirking lightly. "Aren't you feeling curious today...?"

"It was just two questions...I didn't know it constituted curiosity..."

"Daniel..." He turned around upon hearing the calling of his name. He stopped dead in his tracks, not feeling up for surprises. Not feeling up for the past. Not feeling up for explanations. Not feeling up for this...impromptu visit.

"Look who's here..." Claire held the hand of her first born son turned 6 year daughter, standing highly over her mother with her towering height.

The room erupted with applause of her triumphant return as Daniel stood, unmoving and silent.

Wilhelmina looked up, mouth opening to speak. "Finally! Someone with a tangent of Fashion sense, who will agree with me!"

Alexis smiled weakly and looked to the smug stare of her brother who still held the sting of betray in his heart. "Merry Christmas..." He didn't respond. He just thought. She had apologized. He had apologized. He hugged her. And promised to return...She never did.

As he stared at her he reminisced on the past 3 years of missed holidays, empty phone calls and hollow conversations that soon added up to the meaning of nothing. Nothing that meant nothing to him. Nothing that made him dig up feelings of resent for her sins. Sins that he had past forgiven.

"Well..." Claire Meade knew her children. She could see the stare in their eyes. She could see the cogs working behind his eyes as they searched for a snide thought or a reason to forgive and forget. She knew that he couldn't find one. "It has been 5 minutes...Lets close this meeting out so we can get back to our work."

The rest of the staff began to take their seats as Claire sat Alexis beside her in Amanda's vacated spot just as Marc returned, stopping at Wilhelmina's seat to refill her mug with what looked like, steaming hot tea. Snapping out of his trance with a nudge from Betty, he stumbled towards his seat, sitting next to Wilhelmina. He settled down as she set her cup down on the table, pursing her lips to form a thin line as everyone took a minute to drink in the possible potential for each idea.

He wanted to speak up. He wanted to speak out. He wanted to speak...to her. He did not have pleasant words, nor a speech of adoration. He wanted to tell her about the pain she caused their mother. The shame she caused their family, the hurt she caused him. But he couldn't...He shouldn't...And once he felt a warm hand settle in the palm of his hand as it lay on his jittery thigh...He knew he wouldn't.

He looked to her and she paid him no mind, entranced with her own work. Yet despite her state of mind, she still took it upon herself to comfort him...Something that did not go unnoticed...by him.

Soon the moment was over and she stood, making her final plea. "I don't even know why I am doing this, seeing how I will get what I want anyway..." Alexis shook her head, realizing that she really had not changed as Betty and some of the staff rolled their eyes, having realized that long ago. "Christmas around the world is original and versatile. The Features department can brainstorm on possible center spread ideas, but our cover is booked and we managed to get Shaun Alexander for the cover. Daniel's idea...as clever as it may seem...is 2D...a simplistic idea stemmign from the mind of an overworked adolescent whose vacation is LONG...overdue..." Her words drawled in Daniel's direction and he looked away, unimpressed...

"Okay, you know what...This is an upper-management problem now...An Email will be sent with the final decision...Everybody except Wilhelmina, Daniel and Heads of Features and Fashion may leave."

The room dispersed to 6 people. Claire. Alexis. Wilhelmina. Daniel. Marc, now head of the fashion department and Betty, now head of the features department. Silence loomed among them until Wilhelmina looked to Daniel, creeping her fingers onto his portfolio.

He swatted at her fingers playfully, making her smile as she pulled a 6 photo paper out against his will. "Wilhelmina..."

"Just let me see..."

He rolled his eyes, opening his portfolio and sliding it in her direction. "You are so spoiled..."

She flipped through the pages, eyes concentrated. "Shut up...You did it to me..." She looked to her side, not seeing her trusty steed with his unsolicited opinions. "Marcy..." She sung.

"Yes, William..." He greeted, sitting beside her with his own black mug, only with a fuchsia _M _at the front.

"Take a look at this..." She slid him the portfolio as Claire chatted with Alexis, attempting to catch up 3 years in 3 minutes.

"Where have you been, Alexis?"

"Paris mom...I called..."

"You never visited...You stopped calling...I..." Claire looked away, her finger bouncing lightly on the table as she contemplated her next word choice..."I felt like I had lost you...again..."

"Mom..." Alexis covered her bounding hand, trying to put a bandage on the wound that she had caused. "Mom I cut everyone out of my life...I...know it wasn't right and now I know that but at the time it seemed like what was best..."

"For who?"

"For me, mom...I had to find myself again...Discover just who Alexis is...In 24 hours I became a mother and a French resident, it was a lot to handle..."

"So you couldn't call your mother...The one who gave you someone to discover!"

"Mom, I-"

"Claire..." Wilhelmina called out, demanding her attention. "Lend me the good side of your face and tell me...What do you think about doing the World Christmas Cover and 12 international days of Christmas center spread?"

"Wilhelmina Slater asking my opinion...did hell freeze over the last time you vacationed there..."

"No, but if you jump out the window there will surely be a pig flying..." Wilhelmina scolded with her signature false smile, a slap in the face to the Mead matriarch.

Claire stood for battle briefly before Alexis tugged on her arms, settling her back down. "Wilhelmina I think that the idea is fabulous..."

"Hmmmm the opinion of a tranny...No better than a contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race."

Marc snickered, bringing his cup to his lips. "Teehee."

"Didn't you just say that I had fashion sense...?"

"Yes but then you walked by and I saw your shoes and it was my prerogative to change my mind."

Daniel smiled to himself, trying to contain his laughter when he realized that what he couldn't say...What he couldn't do...She would for him in all of a few words that could ignite a bonfire. He realized that Don Perry was right when he said that _A woman that is sexy is always nice to have but a sexy woman that has your back ...is a treasure worth looking for. _He had found her.

"Wilhelmina, it just doesn't mesh for me..." He spoke up honestly, not seeing the connection.

"Daniel, I understand that your IQ is only two digits but listen to me and hear me clearly...There are some things that you will not comprehend and fashion...is one of them."

"If I remember correctly, I had this job 3 years before you did..."

"And if my memory suits me that was due to the Nepotistic Mosquito that bit your father in the ass."

"Really? Because I thought that was you..."

"Now you're thinking of ass kissing...And that was Fey Sommers."

"INSENSITIVE!" Marc set his mug down, hearing Amanda's voice all the way from the lobby.

"Be right back..." He scurried away and Wilhelmina walked over to the drawing board, posting the center spread of Daniel's beside her cover and Features articles.

"Wilhelmina I don't see it!"

"Daniel you're upsetting me." She warned, her eyes looking up like a toxicant reptile. She folded her arms over her chest, her chin lifting slightly with an incline as her foot tapped against the marble in expectation of his next move. As her brow slowly began to climb the ziggurat of her forehead, he sighed, closing his portfolio from Marc's previous spot.

"Fine...Betty please send an email to all of the Editor's and our assistant with the details for the World Christmas Cover and 12 days center spread..."

"Really Daniel?" Alexis spoke up as Betty left the room on her assignment, trying to find a good spot with her brother. "Where's your balls?"

He shrugged, looking up as he packed up his briefcase. "I don't know? Where are yours?"

Wilhelmina scoffed, taking her place beside him. "Ha! The medical waste basket at St. Vincent's Hospital..."

Alexi mocked a laugh. "Ha ha ha ha, Date my brother Wilhelmina, and you have jokes?"

"No darling, you _are _the joke..."

"Oh, sorry I thought that was your Brazilian butt lift..."

"Alexis dear, to be a woman, I had my ass lifted...improved...To be a woman, you on the other hand had to have one implanted..." Wilhelmina turned to leave, winking at a smiling Daniel before leaving.

"Glad to see, you're bringing a pleasant addition to the family..." Alexis commented as the room was left with just the two of them, Claire and Wilhelmina off to their respective offices.

"At least she calls me..." He quipped, never looking her way.

"What, names?"

"Alexis I'm serious..." He stood up, looking her in the eye. "You left for Paris with my forgiveness and the promise to call and yet you never did...You just took off...Sure you called mom but then you stopped doing that...Why?"

"Daniel...I had a rough time adjusting to..."

"So you abandon your family?"

"I was not abandoning you guys I was just...Finding myself...I became a mother overnight...And then I'm carted off to France to avoid a murder sentence, Daniel a lot happened."

"Yeah Alexis, A lot happened...3 years ago...it does not take that long to recover."

"It does when you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning..." He stopped his movements. He stopped his thoughts. "When you look in the mirror and you wonder why you don't just give up...Daniel I fell into a depression...For reasons, I don't know...I just...I wanted to be alone...And I thought that isolating my family to do that was the best thing and I'm sorry if I hurt you but I kept my promise to you...I came back...And that was all you asked for..."

He shrugged. "So what am I supposed to do...Just forgive you?"

"Either that or I'll sic your girlfriend on you..." She smiled, chuckling at her own joke while he fought to repress his smile. He missed his sister... He missed having a sibling...He missed having her.

"Good luck...My eyes tell me that she is fonder of me than you..."

"Oh please, that was vintage Wilhelmina..."

"Vintage? Oh please don't tell me that you slept with another one of my girlfriends..."

Her smile fell, as did his and she suddenly laughed, bursting at the seams. "You should have seen the look on your face."

"Shut up...Besides you wouldn't be able to handle her anyway..." He added cockily.

She raised a brow. "That good?"

"This is such a sick family..." Wilhelmina shook her head, coming back to get her own portfolio that she had carelessly forgot.

She hurried away quickly, looking back for only a moment to revel in her disgust before she left the room completely. Alexis motioned over to Wilhelmina, smiling wide. "Who knows?"

"Mom, you and Marc..."

"No Betty?"

"I'm waiting for the right time...She still thinks that I'm in a long distance with Molly..."

"How long?"

"About 8 months...This will be our first Christmas together..."

"What are you getting her?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean? Christmas is next week...You don't want to be slain on Christmas day, do you?"

"No, no...I don't know because she is picking out the gift and writing down what I need to buy and where to get it from..." Alexis laughed and he rolled his eyes. "C'mon. I'd rather that than getting her a gift that she hates and having her shove a wise man from the nativity scene up my ass...like she threatened..."

Alexis shook her head, her hand landing on his shoulder as she laughed with a beat red face. "I think I just figured out where your balls are?"

"Oh really?"

"Yup...They're an Onrnament on Wilhelmina's Christmas tree."

_Review even if it is just your favorite line!_


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